An Unusual Location

"Ugh, what is this pain in my neck?"

Andrea woke up with a strange pain in her nape.

"Was I asleep all this time?"

"What are these glass walls? It smells putrid in here!"

Andrea found herself inside a cylindrical glass chamber. She began to examine the glass walls.

"Are those scratch marks?"

She looked down towards the surface of her chamber, trying to understand where she was.

"Is that ....is that.... a HUMAN NAIL?!!"

Quivering in horror, she tilted her head up to see the top of the chamber. Several thin transparent tube-like structures hung from there.

"Are those BLOOD STAINS on these tubes?!"

"WHAT IS THIS PLACE!?"

"Excuse me! Is anyone there! Help me out! Let me out of this place! It's suffocating in here! PLEASE Hel-..."

Andrea's eyes fell on something outside her chamber. As far as she could see, all she saw were chambers. The entire room contained glass chambers like hers.

Except, some chambers were much worse.

"Those...those are the kids I saw at the gathering!! What are they doing inside these chambers?"

"Who brought them here?"

As her gaze fell upon the rest of the chambers, her trepidation multiplied by leaps and bounds.

"Are....are those tubes...SIPHONING BLOOD off of THEM? Where is all the blood going?"

In some chambers, the tubes seeped deep into the orphan's skin. It seemed like it was sucking the blood out of them. But the orphans inside looked unconscious. Some chambers had bodies immersed in some sort of liquid.

"Why...what are the tubes using the blood for? Who is trying to do this? For....for what purpose?"

Andrea thought to herself, still in shock over what she saw.

"Where....where's Akemi? I hope he's not in these chambers!"

Andrea continued to look as much as she could, with her restricted view inside the chamber.

Towards the end of the room, she saw someone familiar.

"Ch... Chow? CHOW! No....IT CAN'T BE HIM!... that definitely looks like Chow. My poor brother...he must be so weak right now. What are they trying to do with us orphans?"

The tubes inside Chow's chamber were no longer inside his skin. But his skin had reddish circular marks all around it. Chow's entire body looked lifeless.

"Oh, my goodness, what have they done to him?!"

"Where's... where's Alisa...I..."

"Is she with Akemi? Where are those guys? I hope something hasn't happened to them!"

As Andrea tried to find some answers, a woman entered the room.

"Oh, that guy looks like he has maxed out. Let me go and clean that chamber."

That voice sounded too familiar to Andrea.

The women carried a machine that looked like a vacuum cleaner and a remote. She went towards the chamber where Chow was and opened it.

"Hey, who are you? What are you planning to do to him?"

"Don't worry, I am helping him. Just wait a minute."

The women started the machine and directed it towards Chow's body. Within a minute, Chow's entire body was gone. It looked as if the device had vaporized his body. There was no sign of him. He disappeared into thin air.

Andrea watched the entire time in absolute disbelief. Her jaw dropped wide open, and her face froze. Within a minute, she saw her childhood friend turn into vapor.

"Now, that's done. Let me just hit the clean button."

Click.

"There, that'll take care of the rest of the cleaning."

Soon, water started to fill the chamber.

Swoosh.

Thump.

The chamber looked reminiscent of a washing machine.

"Andrea, see, I put Chow out of his misery. He is resting in peace now. He made good use of his life."

As soon as Andrea's eyes caught a glimpse of that woman, her heart broke. She couldn't believe who was standing before her. She couldn't have even imagined this in her worst nightmare.

"ALISA?!!"

"Ali...Alisa.... wh... what did you...WHY??? You are behind all this? Why put anyone through this torture? Chow ...and us...WE WERE LIKE A FAMILY!! HOW COU..."

Andrea choked and gasped for air. She had seen way too much in so little time.

"Th... the Alisa I know.... would do... no such thing! STOP DOING THIS!"

"Hey, hey, calm down now. The body loses oxygen fast that way. And yes, I'm not Alisa."

"What happened to her?... WHERE IS SHE?!"

"Over there."

Lifting her left arm, the woman pointed a finger towards the opposite end of the room.

Andrea's eyes followed the finger's direction. Inside the chamber laid Alisa, lifeless like Chow.

"Stop walking around pretending to be Alisa. You despicable monster! Let her go...LET US ALL GO!"

"I should have changed my form sooner."

The woman's entire face and body started to morph and twist. Andrea watched in disgust as she saw her friend change into a being with a slaty green body. It had two eyes too large for its head, and they looked like buttons. The mouth was too broad and seemed as if someone had performed surgery on it to force a smile. It looked like it was smiling, even when it wasn't. The arms and legs on each side were too big, dwarfing the hairless head it had up at the top. The entire body stood around six feet tall. No ears and nose only made it look weirder.

"Sorry, I should have done this somewhere in secretive. It might have been a little traumatic to see. It is usually for all humans who come here. But not that much."

"I knew Alisa would never do such a thing. LET US GO! ...please STOP! What have the orphans ever done?"

"Oh yeah, speaking of Alisa, I remembered. She's the next one. I need to clean her chamber too."

"Wh... what? Stop it right now! STOP THIS MADNESS! Plea...please don't hurt her."

"Alisa won't last much longer, Andrea. She isn't dead yet, but she is in a coma. As of now, her entire body is in extreme pain. The tubes up there in the chamber slowly drained her blood out for the past year. All humans only last that long over here."

"Mons...this is the work of a monster... Why subject us through such torture?...... Don't .... don’t move an inch towards her...please...leave us alone...LET US GO!"

"But she can't come out of her state. Her skin right now is fragile. She is suffering. I am only going to help her by putting away her misery."

The creature went towards the opposite end of the room and switched on the vacuum machine. It opened Alisa's chamber and began the cleaning.

Poof.

Alisa's body vaporized right in front of Andrea. Another friend dissipated before her eyes. Her entire family was being taken away from her, one at a time. Her frazzled eyes couldn't take it any longer. All hope and strength left in her slowly started to fade away.